Posts with the tag "Computing"

IEEE Spectrum reports on a UC Berkeley robot gecko that uses biology-inspired three dimensional analytical models to right itself as it falls through the air, kind of like a cat, but more like lizards, of course, which can use the heavy weight of their tales to twist themselves right in mid air (and very much unlike me when I was five years old fell from the top of the playground and got a damn bloody nose).

If life were fair, Charles Babbage’s name should be held high in the pantheon of inventors. Before Thomas Edison was even born the British mathematician had released a paper detailing the schematics for a machine that could have dramatically changed the world — the computer. But Babbage’s machine — powered by steam and programmed by punch cards — was never completed.